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Comment: Allan Massie: A chancellor banking on borrowed time

Denis Healey has suggested that it’s time Tony Blair stepped aside to make way for Gordon Brown. It is unlikely that Healey, now 86, retains any influence in the Labour party: Margaret Thatcher was still prime minister when he was last a member of the shadow cabinet. But no doubt his suggestion in a BBC interview will have pleased the Brownites.

There is certainly a case for saying that Blair has been prime minister long enough, even though it will be only seven years ago in May that he entered No 10. The freshness has gone. He looks weary. His judgment is more and more erratic. Most of his closest associates have already departed; Lord Falconer is a poor substitute for Peter Mandelson. Blair has lost what used to be his greatest asset — his rapport with Middle Britain. “The Project” is stalled, if not completely broken. New Labour’s red rose